Junk food, fossil fuels and consumerism - how can we stop manipulative advertising?

Start: 2021-04-14 18:00:00 UTC British Summer Time (GMT+01:00)

This is a virtual event

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the UK's self-regulation body for advertising. It's supposed to protect the public from the harms caused by advertising. However, the ASA is heavily staffed and entirely funded by the advertising industry itself - leading to weak and ineffective self-regulation.

Following the publication of ‘Too Close for Comfort’ - a report into the ASA by Adfree Cities, this webinar will explore how campaigners can both use and bypass the ASA to address issues of environmental degradation, mental health and climate breakdown.

In this session, we'll explore:

  • How new advertising codes against gender stereotyping were implemented following huge public outcry about body-shaming adverts in 2016.

  • Fossil fuel company advertising: why the ASA is missing the big picture on fossil fuel adverts.
    Speaker: Clemens Kaupa, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (10 mins)

    Plus: why some campaigners are bypassing the ASA to tackle misleading advertising by major polluters like BP and Shell.


  • Junk food advertising: is the ASA doing enough? (10 mins)
    Speaker: Fran Bernhardt, Childrens Food Campaign

  • How can we use the ASA's complaints system to curb corporate power?
    Speaker: Robbie Gillett, Adfree Cities and Badvertising

  • What should be our strategy? Open forum of how we can reform the ASA.

Online event, free of charge. Register now, and join our mailing list for updates.

The event is being co-hosted by Adfree Cities and the Badvertising campaign.

Sponsored by